Why Marshall MG?!

In a recent practice, my friend gave up using his second hand tube amp (forgot the brand, may be kustom) and instead favor the MG10 belong to the club (which sat there for the last 3 monthes unused... I wonder why). Asking why he would prefer to use the MG10, his answer is this:

"Because it has great metal sound."

Is he a noob? Well, from his playing he's definitely not; he can play by ear, a majority of J-rock and their solo. And he played for five years. At the very least, he's better than me.

But the MG10... well, my TRM30, which even though is a 30w SS, still sounds better than that thing (relatively speaking, of course)... and I know that the MG10 recently has an incident involving it failing and let out a bad squeal (though it 'works' now) And Anyone who have an unfortunate chance of playing them will know that not only its tone sucks, it have a loud static in distortion channel.

So I am wondering: is it me, him, or the fact that J-rock tone sucks in general? The reason i am thinking of "j-rock tone = SS tone" is that most of the J-rock sounds, even those that suppose to be using tube amps, still sounds like everything is blurred together.

In a recent practice, my friend gave up using his second hand tube amp (forgot the brand, may be kustom) and instead favor the MG10 belong to the club (which sat there for the last 3 monthes unused... I wonder why). Asking why he would prefer to use the MG10, his answer is this:

"Because it has great metal sound."

Is he a noob? Well, from his playing he's definitely not; he can play by ear, a majority of J-rock and their solo. And he played for five years. At the very least, he's better than me.

But the MG10... well, my TRM30, which even though is a 30w SS, still sounds better than that thing (relatively speaking, of course)... and I know that the MG10 recently has an incident involving it failing and let out a bad squeal (though it 'works' now) And Anyone who have an unfortunate chance of playing them will know that not only its tone sucks, it have a loud static in distortion channel.

So I am wondering: is it me, him, or the fact that J-rock tone sucks in general? The reason i am thinking of "j-rock tone = SS tone" is that most of the J-rock sounds, even those that suppose to be using tube amps, still sounds like everything is blurred together.

Just because he has been playing for a while doesn't mean he's not ignorant. In fact if it wasn't for forums like this there would be A LOT more people playing amps like MG's. Maybe he hasn't really developed an ear for tone (yes it is possible even after playing for 5 years). Maybe it just "sounds" better to him because it says Marshall on it.

just because he likes the sound of the mg better doesn't make him a "noob". if he thinks it sounds good then he's lucky. He doesn't have to blow cash on a tube amp. I say good for him for choosing an amp based on sound rather than reputation.

J-rock sux. There are good metal bands from other countries. Why settle for J-rock?

Because this is Hongcouver?

No, I don't call him a noob in that sense, seeing that he still play better than me. Just find it weird that he would prefer that tone, that's all. Though I guess, as I said before, give an artist garbage and he can make a piece of art.

Yeah, but art can only be good to a certain extent when you're only given twigs and dog crap to paint with.I guess he may like that tone, but alot of people don't care, they just care that they can hear themselves. I understand their point of view, but I'm a major tone freak. I'm inspired by tone too. If I have good tone, it makes me want to play and play and play and play until my fingers bleed. During the times when I was dissatisfied with my tone (back when I had my firstact amp that I was borrowing from a neighbor, and to a certain extent with my spider II, which isn't too shabby for the price I got it for), I didn't really feel like playing much. Once I bought my peavey classic, my skills and addiction to guitar skyrocketed, making me play all the time, thus making me a better player, and always playing around with different tones, because my new amp could produce so many great tones.So, "good" tone varies from person to person, but everyone knows what they want, but some people just don't care if they have it or not, they just like to hear themselves, no matter what the amp sounds like.

I have an MG10 I got for free and use it quite a bit when I cannot play my normal rig. For a practice amp, it's just fine. But that's the limitation for it. If you want to play quiet, then it does a pretty good job.

Yeah, but art can only be good to a certain extent when you're only given twigs and dog crap to paint with.I guess he may like that tone, but alot of people don't care, they just care that they can hear themselves. I understand their point of view, but I'm a major tone freak. I'm inspired by tone too. If I have good tone, it makes me want to play and play and play and play until my fingers bleed. During the times when I was dissatisfied with my tone (back when I had my firstact amp that I was borrowing from a neighbor, and to a certain extent with my spider II, which isn't too shabby for the price I got it for), I didn't really feel like playing much. Once I bought my peavey classic, my skills and addiction to guitar skyrocketed, making me play all the time, thus making me a better player, and always playing around with different tones, because my new amp could produce so many great tones.So, "good" tone varies from person to person, but everyone knows what they want, but some people just don't care if they have it or not, they just like to hear themselves, no matter what the amp sounds like.

^Hopefully that made sense.

yeah, that made sense.

the guy may be good at playing, but obviously isn't as particular about his tone yet.

when i used to jam with a friend using my 30watt ss crate amp, i thought it sounded miles better than his 50watt mg. turns out they both suck, and aren't as far apart in sound quality as i thought.

Just because he has been playing for a while doesn't mean he's not ignorant. In fact if it wasn't for forums like this there would be A LOT more people playing amps like MG's. Maybe he hasn't really developed an ear for tone (yes it is possible even after playing for 5 years). Maybe it just "sounds" better to him because it says Marshall on it.

+1000000This is exactly the same situation as with my mate, he's been playing for like 6 or 7 years (me for just 3) and he has no ear for tone at all. He just has an eye for a name brand.

I have an MG10 I got for free and use it quite a bit when I cannot play my normal rig. For a practice amp, it's just fine. But that's the limitation for it. If you want to play quiet, then it does a pretty good job.

Agreed. I used one for awhile and its fine. My friend's isn't a bad practice amp either. In general the 30s sound a bit better than the 15s due to the bigger speaker. Kind of over priced amps though, but thats what buying used is for. Really they aren't any different from Orange Crushs in terms of tone, but one says Orange and people love those. The "buying something for the name" argument works both ways.